


The Republic Resists

by TigStripe



Series: End of an Era [10]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Jedi Rey, M/M, Other, the resistance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-15
Updated: 2018-09-15
Packaged: 2019-07-12 17:56:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16000382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TigStripe/pseuds/TigStripe
Summary: With the First Order bearing down on the new home of the Galactic Republic, can the Resistance survive?





	The Republic Resists

**Author's Note:**

> After a 7-month hiatus, we finally have part 2 of Rey's arc of the "End of an Era" series. For those who are still around, enjoy!

The planet of Chandrila was under siege. Key members of the Resistance were in grave danger, as well as the potential remainder of the old Jedi Order. The First Order's sudden arrival had surprised everyone – Leia, the Senate, Finn – and suddenly, all the Resistance's recent victories felt so trivial. If the First Order succeeded here, the war would be over.

In the Senate chamber, Rey turned to Leia with her eyes narrowed and her hands still clenched in tight fists. She could barely get the image of Kylo Ren's scarred face and wild eyes out of her head. “What do we do?” she asked, forcing herself to focus on the here and now.

“I have business with the Senate,” Leia replied urgently. She had to raise her voice to be heard over the sea of arguing and near-panicked Senators that filled one side of the auditorium. “Take the rest of the Resistance and defend this building. And make sure Poe doesn't do anything stupid.”

“We can't just leave you here,” Finn cried. “It's chaos!”

“I'll be fine,” Leia assured him, her eyes locking deeply with his for a moment. “If I don't stay and talk with the Senate about this, we're as good as dead. Leave me. May the Force be with us all.”

“I'm really starting to hate that phrase,” Rose muttered. Rey grabbed Rose's hand and pulled her away from the Senate chamber with Finn on her heels, each of them with a weapon in hand. The other bodyguards followed her, save for one mandatory escort. Pemmi Rall stood stalwart in the center of the chamber, standing resolute with her blaster drawn next to both Leia and the still-bound Phasma.

As the Resistance established a holding position near the front doors to the Senate, Rey heard Poe over comms. “Running diagnostics. Black Squadron, ready to deploy.”

“They won't approach Hanna City until at least another city falls,” Finn informed them. “Unless Kylo's completely derailed, protocol calls for a follow-through with the ultimatum.”

“Murderers with a code of ethics,” Rey spat. “How _honorable_.”

“So we have just a few minutes before another city falls,” Poe replied. “Deploying. We can't take on a dreadnaught with four X-Wings, but we can patrol the city for the first wave of attackers. What did the General say?”

“She stayed behind with the Senate. Said she had 'business' with them still,” Rey replied.

“I hope she knows what she's doing,” Karé said quietly.

Silently, Rey agreed.

“It's the General,” Poe replied. “When _doesn't_ she know what she's doing?”

“Rey, do you feel Kylo?” Finn asked. Rey winced at the question. Of course she could feel him – and the other Knight of Ren – but simply being able to feel him wasn't enough.

Rey opened her mouth to respond, but suddenly-

“ _Incoming!_ ”

Rey jerked in surprise. Snapp's voice echoed through her mind for a moment, the implications of that single word sticking to Rey's memory much longer than the actual word itself. “Poe?”

“We've got bogeys incoming,” Poe replied. “There's a cloud of TIEs out there on the horizon. I see at least three transport cruisers.”

Rey saw Finn shake his head, his eyes wide and his face pale. “They're ignoring protocol,” he said. “They're coming straight for the capital.”

“Surprising _no one_ ,” Jess retorted over the comms. “Orders, Black Leader?”

“Stay loose. They're approaching, but they haven't opened fire yet.”

“Yet.”

“Pava.”

“Just sayin'.”

The comms went silent as Black Squadron flipped to a private frequency. Rey looked over at Finn, both of them visibly nervous over these new developments. “What does this mean, Finn?” Rey asked.

Finn stammered for a second, but brought himself out of it to answer. “Kylo's become unhinged. To completely disregard protocol and invade the New Republic directly – the man's insane!”

Rey could only think of the less than stable look Kylo Ren had given his mother in his announcement to the Senate. His eyes had been widened, his pupils small, and the grin on his face was less than collected. After consecutive losses at the hands of the Resistance, Kylo Ren was beginning to unravel.

Amidst the chaos, Rey closed her eyes and felt the Force. This time, she sought help. Guidance. There was little she could do to help against a storm of TIE fighters, but there _had_ to be a way she could help the others.

_Any time, Force_ , Rey thought impatiently. _What can I do?_

 

The sky darkened with the presence of hundreds of TIE fighters against Chandrila's normally stunning sunset. Black Squadron waited anxiously, watching from their ambush posts, as the oncoming cloud of death beset Hanna City.

_This is a death trap,_ Poe though to himself. _I can't let everyone risk everything on such a suicidal defense._ The memories of Crait and the exploding shuttles flitted their way to the front of the Commander's memory, and he felt his throat constrict. Those lives had been on his hands, and so would the lives of Hanna City if he allowed them to throw their lives away.

“Poe.”

“Dameron! Answer us!”

Poe shook himself out of his little reverie and cleared his throat. “Sorry, what?”

“Orders, Black Leader?” Snap's voice was cool. Collected. A little quieter than normal.

Poe hesitated, but he knew what he had to tell them. “They haven't opened fire,” he replied tersely. “If and when they do, open fire.”

“There's no way we're coming out of this alive,” Karé muttered. “We need backup.”

“We'd have some if those assholes in the Senate had listened to the General for the past decade,” Jess snapped.

“Hey.” Poe's voice was stern. “That's enough. Assholes or not, they're our charges to defend.”

“Never said they weren't,” Jess replied quietly, but she said nothing else.

BB-8 beeped up to Poe, wondering whether everyone was staying near the Senate or evacuating the area.

Poe shook his head. “We don't have to know that, buddy. We just have to keep the city from burning.”

Below them, air traffic was beginning to run amok as the oncoming First Order wave encroached the city. More and more civilians were noticing the sun being blotted out by TIE fighters, and reacted accordingly – usually, with panic. Foot traffic on the archways and bridges within view was becoming chaotic. Poe was silently glad he couldn't hear the panicked screams through the plasteel and panes of his cockpit.

Suddenly, thermal readings exploded on Poe's sensors. The TIEs had opened fire on the city. Bridges caught ablaze, burning bodies falling to their deaths in the great chasms below. Buildings crumbled. Air traffic lanes lit up with laser fire before they could react.

In short, Chandrila had been turned into Hell.

“Black Squadron, engage hostiles,” Poe ordered.

 

Rey could hear laser fire in the distance, and could feel the pulsing darkness escalating from the city. What used to be vibrant and full of life had transformed in seconds to a multiplying cascade of fear and death. It made her queasy just thinking about it.

“Captain Finn.” The comms startled Rey, who had been so focused on the Force that she'd forgotten other people had their frequency. “This is Captain Estila, of the Hanna City Security Regimen. I was informed to coordinate our defenses with the Resistance. You are acting ground forces leader. Recommendations?”

Finn paused for a moment, and Rey could see the panic in his eyes. He was a soldier, not a leader, and he had no idea what the Security Regimen was capable of. She could feel his anxiety, leading to panic. She saw Rose reach out to him and place a hand on his shoulder. He jerked in surprise, but blinked at the small hand and smiled. A hand went up to his earpiece.

“This is Finn. I'm assuming you've scrambled to air defenses?”

“Yes. We're moving to the AA batteries and launching all defense fighters we have. They're no X-wings, but they've got shields and guns. We should have a total of roughly seventy-five fighters at the ready, with more incoming from a neighboring city.”

Civilian defenses weren't going to cut it, Rey knew. TIE pilots are meticulously trained. They're some of the best pilots in the galaxy. The civilian fighters were just that – civilians. Cops or volunteers. They would be slaughtered six to one out there. It wouldn't be enough.

“The Senate is likely their primary target,” Finn said. “Have your AA batteries prepped to intercept courses headed for Senate Hall.”

“Roger. Other suggestions?”

Finn shook his head. “Pray.”

“That's not very comforting, sir.”

“It wasn't meant to be, Captain.” Finn looked over at Rey, his expression dark. He knew the likelihood of this working out in their favor as well as anyone. With such brute force bearing down on them, and the Resistance without a mountain-sized blast shield to protect them, they were living their last minutes.

Rey reached out into the Force to see if she could sense Poe or the other Black Squadron pilots, but there was too much chaos surrounding her. She couldn't tell what panicked life form was devoted to which side of this conflict. Then, a thought occurred to her. Closing her eyes to block out what she could, Rey searched for the still within the storm.

 

It felt like ages since Jess had been involved in such a bloodthirsty air brawl, although she'd been present at the assault on the _Ascendancy_ just days ago. She felt the familiar rush of adrenaline, but she was surprisingly calm, considering her overwhelming circumstances. She bobbed and weaved, ducked behind buildings, fired only upwards, away from the city, and performed acrobatic maneuvers she'd barely realized she could do in-atmo. The force of gravity pressed on her from every direction as she turned and spun, her laser fire blazing through the darkening Chandrila skies. In her ear, the other members of Black Squadron barked out status reports and directions.

“On your six, Three!”

“Four bogeys incoming at two o'clock.”

“Shields low. We can't keep this up for long.”

“Keep them off of Senate Hall!”

Jess saw a trio of TIEs beelining for Senate Hall from the north. She whipped her X-wing around and jammed on the trigger, slamming her pursuer through the cockpit with rapid laser fire. She immediately slung her control stick to the right, spinning northward with her lasers on full-auto. One. Two. The third TIE managed to avoid her line of fire, but it broke off from its target, instead turning to fly straight at Jess.

Time seemed to slow down for Jess. She saw the laser turrets on the TIE fighter slowly prime over what seemed like five seconds as a slow-motion TIE fighter entered her field of vision from the corner of her eye. Something was wrong with this new fighter, and Jess watched it spin slowly and somewhat erratically through the air. It slammed into the TIE aiming directly at Jess, and the two of them burst into a gradual surge of flame. The laser fire, however, had already been let loose, and Jess felt the shock of impact on her forward shields.

Ivee beeped some warnings at her, and time seemed to return to normal.

_What?_

Jess heard an explosion from behind her as Snap took out a pursuing fighter on Jess's six.

“Pava! Get your head out of your ass and fly!”

Jess pushed the strange event out of her mind and took up her control stick again, heading back into the fray.

 

To say Finn was “on edge” would have been an understatement. He felt completely helpless down at the doors of Senate Hall, pistol in his hand, just waiting for the inevitable foot soldiers to approach the main entrance. At times like this, he really wished he was a pilot like Poe, so he could help with the more immediate threat of enemy fighters.

Of course, being a pilot is what worried him about Poe. He was worried about Jess and the other pilots, too, but Poe's face often found its way to the forefront of Finn's mind during times like these. There was a flash of his face, beaten and bruised, from the _Ascendancy_ jail cell, and the smoking piece of his X-wing hull from the second Starkiller base, and Finn's stomach gave a lurch. If they were _lucky_ , Poe would look similar by the end of this fight.

He looked over at Rey, one of the many rocks he had found in the Resistance. She was always so collected, even in the face of chaos, and just looking at her usually calmed Finn's nerves a little. He saw her eyes closed, her face serene. She was meditating, even now, in the thick of an invasion. Finn silently envied her ability to block out everything, to escape into the Force. He didn't know what she saw or felt when she connected with it, but he did know that the Force protected her, at least a little. She was important to the balance of the galaxy, Finn knew as much.

The invasion force wasn't just TIE fighters – Finn was fully aware of this. There were foot soldiers waiting in transports similar to those that had stormed the Yavin base floating in behind the cloud of fighters. But this time, Black Squadron wasn't going to be able to stop them from landing.

“Captain.” It was Captain Estila. “Our forces have engaged.”

“Senate Hall is their target,” Finn instructed.

“Copy that.”

“Focus on the big transports if you can. We're going to have Stormtroopers on us if they land.”

“We'll do what we can.”

Finn sighed and shifted his weight behind the pillar he was using for cover. Rose was behind a nearby statue of some human woman with short hair that Finn didn't recognize, her gun at the ready.

“The transports are touching down,” Estila called. “I'm sorry, Captain. Our forces are being obliterated.”

Finn could hear the explosions – too many to just be TIE fighters. But at least they were taking some down with them.

But what about Poe and the others? “Captain, is Black Squadron still airborne?”

“Yes. They're practically ghosts out there. They're untouchable.”

This only gave Finn's heart more reason to speed up. The longer they avoid being hit in that battle, the more likely they _will_ be hit. Why did they swap to a private frequency?

 

“Transports on the ground,” Jess called. “I'm going to give those Troopers something to fire at.”

“Careful, Pava.” The words were short and almost spit out. Jess smiled, knowing Poe was really giving it his all out there.

She lit up the walkway leading from one of the large First Order transports up to Senate Hall, launching several Stormtroopers over the edge and to their grisly deaths in the chasm below. The rest either started running or turned upwards to return fire. Jess watched their hand blasters ricochet off her shields in dull flashes of light. She was glad she'd made some modifications to her forward shield array before the _Ascendancy_ assault.

Ivee beeped at her, a little worried. Jess knew the droid was right – the moment she passed by overhead, they'd have a much easier time taking out whatever they could hit through the weaker rear and underside shields. Jess punched her controls and gave a single command to Ivee: “Roll it.”

The gravity was evident, but Jess was locked into her seat. In the blink of an eye, her head was pointed down, toward the walkway, her fighter's blasters lighting up some of the remaining troops. As she moved past them, she grappled her fighter's yoke, always keeping her nose on her targets. Her X-Wing drifted at full speed past the walkway, curving in just a way that all shots sent her way only managed to deflect off of the front shields. As soon as she had passed, Jess spun her fighter back upright to avoid the risk of being exposed to the TIEs above.

By the time her maneuver had ended, the walkway leading up to Senate Hall was completely devoid of Stormtroopers. Jess smiled in spite of herself.

“Black Two, incoming!”

As soon as she'd heard Snap's warning, her sensors blared a similar warning: two TIES had started a strafing run directly above her, but these weren't typical TIE fighters. They had dual-cockpits, twice as wide as your typical fighter.

Jess's heart fell into her stomach as the TIE bombers let loose their salvo directly overhead.

Ivee's single, solitary beep brought Jess's attention back to reality. “What? No!”

But the little droid had already launched itself into the air, its little jet propellants keeping up its velocity, arching high up over Jess's trajectory. Jess watched in slow motion as one of the TIE bomber's payload smashed directly into her astromech, the ball of flame and smoke pouring out in all directions. Jess's X-Wing soared safely underneath the explosion as bombs fell on either side of it, but her eyes were locked onto the collision site overhead.

“Ivee...” A tear formed in the corner of her eye, which she quickly blinked away. Gritting her teeth and squeezing her flight yoke tight, Jess made a devastating turn which, without Ivee to stabilize the compensators, slammed her to the side of the cockpit. But she didn't notice the burning in her shoulder – just the fire in her chest. “ _Die, you sons of bitches!_ ”

Laserfire lit up Jess's view. One. Two. Three. A bomber detonated in colorful release. One. Two. Three. The second bomber followed suit.

“Black Leader, they're making a break for the Senate!”

Jess snapped her eyes to Senate Hall, where several Stormtroopers had managed to find their way to the entrance. As she watched, the foot soldiers retreated to a safe distance, just as a small squadron of TIEs flew straight at the domed roof of the building.

_No._

The TIEs slammed themselves directly into the roof, exploding brilliantly, debris flying in every direction. At least four different fighters collided with the domed building, the roof blown in from sheer momentum.

_No!_

Another TIE bomber shot over the Hall, tailed by Karé, but its payload was let loose before she was able to light it up with laserfire. The bombs collided with the side supports to the main structure of the building, flames and smoke billowing up into the lower atmosphere. After a moment, the supports gave way, and the building crumbled at its foundation, leaving nothing remaining but a smouldering pile of masonry and steel.

And somewhere beneath it were the bodies of Rose, Rey, Finn, and General Organa.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to take a moment of silence for Ivee. I never expected myself to latch onto a background astromech like I did Ivee in the Poe Dameron comics, and I had to give her a fitting scene after she gave her life for Jess in the canon.


End file.
